Effects of attitude direction, attitude intensity, and structure of beliefs upon differentiation.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
40 undergraduate concrete and abstract Ss made ratings of positive, negative, and neutral stimuli in the domains of social beliefs and interpersonal relations toward which they varied in the intensity of their feeling. Neutral stimuli were better differentiated than were either positive or negative stimuli between which there was no difference. Attitudinal intensity significantly affected 1 of the 2 measures of differentiation and also interacted significantly with concreteness-abstractness on both measures. Concrete Ss differentiated stimuli less highly than abstract Ss when their attitudes toward these stimuli were intense, while the reverse was true when their attitudes toward these stimuli were less intense. Results suggest that attitudinal intensity and not direction is a major determinant of differentiation, in contradiction to both the vigilance and exploration theory of differentiation, and that the optimum intensity for differentiation by concrete persons is much lower than that for abstract individuals. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: